Exploding Samsung batteries just caused a fire at its Chinese plant

Whether karmic justice or some sort of curse, today the Korean phone manufacturer’s Chinese plant caught fire due, at least in part, to faulty batteries. According to local emergency services, the fire was a product of waste material and faulty batteries — emergency services lean toward the latter, as reported by Reuters.

The “material that caught fire was lithium batteries inside the production workshops and some half-finished products,” the Wuqing branch of the Tianjin Fire Department said via a verified Weibo account. Fire department officials also claimed to have sent 110 firefighters and 19 trucks to battle the blaze.

As for the impact on Samsung’s much-anticipated ‘S8’ — well, it exists. The plant was recently contracted to start supplying batteries for the upcoming flagship device. This Samsung flagship replaces the Galaxy Note 7, which, as you might recall, had a few fire issues of its own.